Bridgeport's Harbor Station plant gets permit for 5 more years

Brian Lockhart

Updated 10:21 pm, Monday, November 5, 2012

BRIDGEPORT -- Connecticut's last coal-fired power plant will still be belching the occasional smoke cloud along the city's harbor front.

State environmental officials Monday announced their counterparts in the Environmental Protection Agency have issued a new five-year permit for the Harbor Station facility, owned by the Public Service Enterprise Group.

It was an anti-climatic denouement to a months-long effort by opponents who unrealistically hoped for a rejection to force PSEG to retire what they consider a pollution-spewing relic.

The state recommended the renewal in September, triggering a routine 45-day review process by the EPA, which had never been expected to reject the permit.

The silver lining for those who want the plant shuttered? They doubt PSEG will be back for another permit five years from now, and are turning their attention to discussing the site's future.

"We can't really see this plant functioning after a couple more years," said Onte Johnson of the Sierra Club, one of several groups which had been fighting the permit renewal.

During the summer, plant opponents acknowledged they believed Harbor Station was on its last legs because of changes in the energy market making the operation cost-prohibitive.

In operation since 1961, the coal- and oil-fired plant has an output of 529 megawatts and can supply electricity to nearly 530,000 homes when running at full capacity.

In 2010 PSEG was Bridgeport's third-highest taxpayer, with a property assessment of $152,689,120. But as of mid-summer the plant had only burned 24 days out of the year, and not necessarily 24 hours a day, according to the city.

And in May, UBS Securities LLC in a memorandum on PSEG wrote that Harbor Station "is particularly vulnerable to retirement eventually."

Johnson said the debate over the permit renewal has led the Sierra Club, PSEG, the city and other stakeholders to begin meeting and looking ahead to consider a different use for the property.

"If the plant decides to close down because everybody's headed toward natural gas or a new alternative energy source, then what happens to the workers? The taxes?" Johnson asked.

The company is happy that state and federal officials supported the permit renewal, PSEG spokesman Lee Gray said in a statement Monday.

"The action will allow Bridgeport Harbor Generating Station to continue its mission of providing safe, reliable and environmentally responsible energy to the cities of Connecticut and the region," she said.